By
racism, I mean, of course, white racism - white peoples feelings
of superiority to black people and others. White racism has historical roots.
There was white enslavement of black people, of course. At the end of the 19th
century, European nations such as France and Great Britain possessed colonies
in Africa and Asia that included a large share of the worlds population.
The predominately white United States of America was the leading power in the
New World. So, if some saw white people as a master race that ruled
the world, it had some basis in reality. These white racists were like the matrons
of high society who exult in their superior status.

Then
there were the common folk among white people who looked at blacks as ignorant,
lazy, dirty people whose arrival in a neighborhood marked the beginning of its
decline. In their eyes, blacks became associated with so-called ghetto
behavior - mass loitering, loud music, foul speech, jaywalking, petty crime.
Blacks were seen as welfare recipients or persons having babies at a young age
without a job to support them. They were disproportionately persons who committed
serious crimes such as murder. In the 1960s, they were responsible for urban
riots that involved arson and looting.

The
Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s did not deny that black people
sometimes engaged in such behavior. It did say to white people, however: Dont
judge all blacks by the misconduct of a few. Dont be prejudiced. Look
at each person with an open mind and heart and judge that person by the content
of their character rather than the color of their skin. This was appealing
to peoples higher instincts, calling upon them to be objective rather
than selfish and emotional in dealing with persons of another race.

By
and large, white people bought that argument. They did try to accept blacks
individually. White people also went further than this. Acknowledging that blacks
were disadvantaged by slavery and by racial segregation in the south, whites
instituted and supported programs to rectify historical injustice by giving
blacks an extra helping hand. This led to affirmative action in hiring and school
admissions and to minority set asides in business contracting. Even if some
whites were disadvantaged by such programs, their interests were subordinated
to what was believed to be societys greater good - breaking
the back of racist practices in the past that had put black people in an inferior
position or demoralized them to the point that they could not participate in
society on a fair and equal basis.

There
is more. Even if education, business, government, and the other institutions
of power renounced white-racist practices and made extra efforts to help black
people succeed, it was not enough. There was such a thing as institutional
racism. In a largely white society, the society is racist by the very
fact that mostly white people run it. Blacks are outnumbered in most areas.
White people therefore have unspoken, even unconscious, racist attitudes that
need to be addressed. Individually, they need to acknowledge their own racism
and make a decision to eradicate those hateful attitudes. Anti-racist workshops
and self-help groups may help them achieve such a personal transformation in
much the same way that Alcoholics Anonymous helps persons suffering from alcohol
abuse regain sobriety.

It
is at this point that the anti-racist campaign loses me. I am a white man. I
see this one-sided attack on racism (defined exclusively as the racism of white
people) as an unfair and demoralizing attack on myself and people like me for
the fact that we were born white. When actual attitudes or conduct become irrelevant
to the determination of a hateful condition, the determination becomes meaningless.
The idea of institutional racism or a racism found only among white
people is quite divorced from reality. Its effect is to degrade the white people.

This
idea subverts the idea of law and equal justice in applying its condemnation
to a certain racially determined group of people and not to others. It is the
opposite of the original appeal to white people not to judge all black people
by the misdeeds of a few individuals. Blacks, and indeed many or most white
people themselves, judge all white people harshly. In a word, whites are racist.

And
so it seems to me that, as a white American, I am a man without a country or,
at least, a man without a people that I can proudly call my own. I have no desire
to attack blacks for racism or another fault but merely regain my own dignity.
I see this anti-racist  political religion in the United States
of America as a malignant and demoralizing influence in society which enables
other kinds of abuse.

Specifically,
I see the anti-racist campaign as a reflection of political maneuvering by the
Democrats to win the black vote and get elected to public office; but the Republicans,
under George W. Bush, are also not above playing this game in other ways. I
see the concept of racism, and the Fair Housing laws and laws against discrimination
in employment, as opportunities for attorneys to grow their business of litigation.
The lawyers and politicians are selling out their community for personal gain.

Once
that mentality is established, the society rapidly goes down hill. Those in
power - mostly white - care not a whit about other white people, or about black
people, or anyone else. They care only for themselves. Thanks to their self-motivated
decisions, the rich get richer and the poor poorer. American jobs are routinely
outsourced to low-wage countries as Wall Street cheers. Lobbyists swarm the
halls of Congress seeking parochial advantage at the expense of the general
taxpayer and citizen. The U.S. government sends troops to invade another country
as private contractors connected to high government officials secure lucrative
contracts and many less well-connected Army Reserve or National Guard soldiers
came back from Iraq severely wounded or in body bags.

How
could we as a nation have sunk so low? Its easy. The great mass of white
Americans is demoralized. Black Americans, seeing these bad things as the product
of a white society, are likewise unable or unwilling to act in a
constructive way. On the ground level of our society, we are all fighting and
blaming each other for racial and other inadequacies as the knaves and thieves
at the top of the social pyramid, abetted by the news media, continue to make
out like bandits. No, this unjustified blaming of white people for racism
is not helpful, not to whites and not to black people either. This is wrong.
Its untrue. Its hurting the country. I know this in my heart. What
to do about it, though, is another matter.

Talk
is cheap. Speaking out in public, on the other hand, qualifies as a type of
action. For now, this is the only option available to me. So, if I think this
anti-racist, anti-white campaign is wrong, I should say so in public. I should
speak my mind openly not only among people who might agree with me but also
among those who would disagree and even call me a racist. Political
progress begins to be made when my critics see that use of this defamatory language
has little power over me. I am undeterred in my efforts by such intimidation,
buoyed by the vague hope that others who agree with my views will follow my
example and go public.

So
far this has not happened. I am still alone. I am regarded as a kook
and exponent of hate. But that does not matter. I persist, believing in my cause.
It is the cause of simple truth.

So
what are some of the things I have done?

First,
I ran for U.S. Senate in the 2002 Independence Party primary challenging both
the Democrats and Republicans by opposing their core issues and constituencies.
I was photographed repeatedly carrying a large picket sign with slogans on either
side expressing my political platform. One side of the sign said: I believe
that the Federal Government should reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours
by 2010. The other side said: I believe in the full citizenship,
dignity, and quality of white males (and of everyone else).

Minnesotas
largest newspaper, the Star Tribune, would not accept a paid ad from my campaign
unless reference to the second campaign position was eliminated. I refused to
do that and so no ads were run. Furthermore, the Star Tribune would not mention
my name in any of the stories about the Senatorial primary, not even in the
election results. Although the party and this newspaper were dead set against
me, I finished second in a three-man race, with 8,482 votes, or 31% of the total.

The
next such occasion was when the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minneapolis and
St. Paul announced that, in his opinion, white Minnesotans were just as racist
as whites in Louisiana where he had previously served. The Archbishop appeared
on a panel with black ministers at a cafe in north Minneapolis, not far from
my home, in December 2003. At this forum, he repeated his remarks condemning
white racism. Third in line to ask a question, I stated forthrightly that as
a white man I did not agree with the Archbishop. Someone else on the panel remarked
that I was insane. There was a follow-up conversation with a woman
who headed the Churchs Social Justice division. See discussion
of race with the Archbishop. No minds were changed.

Then,
in June 2003, I decided to run for President of the United States in the Democratic
primaries. In consultation with a photojournalist from HBO, Alexandra Pelosi,
daughter of Nancy Pelosi, I planned and carried out a discussion of race
in Des Moines, Iowa, at the Civil War monument near the Iowa state capitol.
Invitations were sent to all the other Democratic candidates, the news media,
and other organizations. A week earlier, Pelosi sent her regrets. In the end,
the only participants in this event were two friends from Minneapolis, one black
and one white, and me. I continued my campaign in Louisiana, after being stricken
from the South Carolina primary ballot, but did not raise the issue of race.
I finished fifth among seven candidates, with 3,161 votes, or 2% of the total,
in the Louisiana Democratic Presidential primary held on March 8, 2004.

The
next racial encounter came at a workshop in 2005 sponsored by the Undoing
Racism committee of my neighborhood organization in Minneapolis, the Harrison
Neighborhood Association. This was a two-day workshop conducted by the Peoples
Institute based on the premise that white people are inherently racist and privileged.
I disagreed with the facilitators and others attending this workshop. Again,
no one was persuaded. The story of this event is told at A
Neighborhood Workshop on ending White Racism.

Finally,
in December 2006, I organized an open discussion of race with a newly elected
member of the Minneapolis School Board, Chris Stewart, whose name had been linked
to a web site satirizing the campaign web site white-female candidate for U.S.
Congress. This event, attended by reporters from three newspapers including
the Star Tribune, was promoted through the e-democracy forum for the city of
Minneapolis. Twenty to thirty people participated. (See MPRAC
Sponsors an Open Discussion of Race.) Stewart and I went head-to-head on
the race question. There was a story in one of the papers (not the Star Tribune)
focusing not on the discussion but upon Chris Stewart whose views, though we
were on the opposite ends of the argument, were not so unlike my own.

The
sum total of all these events was no publicity whatsoever even though race relations
may be the main issue of U.S. politics and I was one of the few on the other
side of the question willing to stick his neck out . Only if this subject is
approached in a particular way will journalists give it any coverage. And so,
it appears on the surface that a complete consensus has been achieved in this
matter among white people apart from a few racist dissenters such
as myself whose views do not deserve to be dignified either by reporting or
comment.

Its
important to say that my quarrel is not with black people but with people in
the white community, especially in the media and other institutions of elite
opinion, who have imposed a corrosive orthodoxy upon discussions of race. I
myself live in a racially mixed neighborhood and have close personal relations
with black people. I do not make any attempt to hide my political views from
them. Black people with whom I have spoken seem to accept me for who I am, lacking
the ill feelings that anti-racist whites might have for a person
with such opinions.

I
would also note that, even if racial victimhood plays well politically, black
people are themselves far from being united on this question. The Jesse Jacksons
and Al Sharptons of this world do not speak for all in the black community.
Some of the most perceptive commentary on the question of race has come from
black conservatives such as Thomas Sowell, Ward Connerly, and Shelby
Steele. Often derived as Uncle Toms and self-hating blacks,
they have done some moral heavy lifting. Next to them, considering all the abuse
they have taken, I do indeed enjoy white privilege. That much can
be conceded.

Since
not all white people agree with the reigning consensus on race,
I would assume that the reason they fail to speak out and express their true
views is the fear of being called a racist, and the damage to reputations
and careers that this would entail. Look, the institution of slavery was abolished
over 140 years ago. Racial segregation was never practiced in Minnesota or other
northern states. Why, then, do white Minnesotans today think they are so vulnerable
to the charge of racism? Cant we just move on and try to get along in
the here and now?

It
boils down to a lack of courage, not so much among black people as among whites.
Forget politics or religion. Questions of this sort need to be decided in a
persons own heart. So, white people, if your inner attitude toward black
people is so bad that you need to self-flagellate, do so with gusto and conviction.
Otherwise, show a bit of courage and dispute the false charges being brought
against you.

Be
not like the ones of little backbone, easily impressed by authority and by the
prevailing opinions, who, in another time, would have righteously served as
guards in concentration camps or accusers at the Salem witchcraft trials. Stand
up for yourself and your convictions. If the United States of America is indeed
land of the free and home of the brave, you can do no
less.